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THERE IS SOMETHING IN THE AIR 



CUBA MUST BE FREE 



WHY DO WE HESITATE? 



EY 



CHARLES HENRY pUTLER 






OF THE NEW YORK BAR 




PRICE ONE CENT 

FOR SALE BY ALL NEWSDEALERS 






5:50G 



Copyright, 1898, bv 
CHARLES HENRY BUTLER 



t CUBA MUST BE FREE 

' In a little book recently published, entitled " The 
^Real Condition of Cuba To-day," the author, Mr. 
Stephen Bonsai, describes at length an interview 
between himself and a Spaniard who had settled 
in Cuba but was, heart and soul, a " Peninsular " 
and an ardent admirer of Captain-General Wey- 
ler. This man was unable to comprehend how 
the insurgents, as he called the followers of Go- 
mez, could maintain their struggle for indepen- 
dence in the face of the tremendous odds against 
them, and declared that the only possible way for 
Spain to retain her sovereignty over Cuba was to 
crush out by every means possible the contagion 
and dreams of Cuba Libre. " What the contagion 
is," he said, " I do not know. It is something" 
in the air these Cubans breathe- No 
one is safe from the infection. Every day I hold 
my breath as my half-grown boys set out for 
school, and wonder if they too will start for the 
long grass." 

Unconsciously the Spaniard struck the key- 
note of the whole situation when he uttered those 
few words — " It is something in the air " — and 
while in his own heart no responsive chord thrilled 
at their sound, to us they convey all the meaning 
of an axiomatic truth. 

It would be hard, indeed, to explain those 
words to a thoroughgoing Spaniard, because he 
could never grasp the full extent and meaning of 
what the " something" is that the Cuban patriots 
breathe ; but it would be even more difficult to 
explain them to an American, for they would be 

3 



understood so fully and so quickly from their 
mere mention that an attempt to define that 
" something " would be as futile as an attempt to 
demonstrate one of the self-evident propositions 
of Euclid. 

Yes, indeed ! we well know what that " somc- 
thino- " is. We cannot exactly enumerate all of 
its component parts, formulate an analysis, as it 
were, but we recognize it as the same "some- 
thing " that was in the air when the Pilgrims 
landed on Plymouth Rock and the Huguenots dis- 
embarked on Carolina's shore. Samuel Adams 
and the Boston Mohawks, whom he inspired with 
that fiery zeal that gave him the title of Father 
of the Revolution, sniffed it in the air one wintry 
night on Griffin's Wharf, and in the morning Paul 
Revere's horse sped the faster for it as he rode 
post-haste to tell the Philadelphia Quakers how 
well taxed tea could mix with the salt water 
of Boston Harbor ; Warren and his men felt it at 
Bunker Hill ; it sustained Washington and his 
poorly clad, and still more poorly fed, army 
through the dark and dreary winter of camp-life 
at Valley Forge ; for Marion and his men it was 
the sauce that made their scanty diet of potatoes 
richer by far than the well-spread table of the Brit- 
ish officers. It was in the air he breathed, but his 
own nature had fallen so low that he could not 
appreciate it, when Arnold became a traitor, al- 
though he, too, had felt it at Saratoga and Quebec. 
It animated the meetings of the Federal conven- 
tion which framed the Constitution which has 
been the compass and the anchor-chain of our 
country, as it also animated the conventions of 
the separate States which ratified it. 

It was in the air again when, in defiance of our 
nation's rights, ships sailing under our flag were 

4 

• 



overhauled and searched by English frigates, and 
it was shaped in Lawrence's last breath into the 
words, " Don't give up the ship," and though his 
gallant fight and noble death could not save the 
fated Chesapeake, in how many battles since the 
one on Lake Erie, when Perry hung those words 
on his banner as a signal, have they been the 
watch-words that have victoriously enabled us 
to say : " We have met the enemy, and they are 
ours ! " 

It showed itself in all its pristine vigor, after it 
had, perhaps, lain dormant for a while, when, 
danger no longer threatening us from without, did 
threaten us from within, and then it was that 
" something " in the air filled every heart and 
mind with loyalty and strength. 

The whole world felt it when it guided the pen 
of Lincoln and emancipation became a fact, and 
it was known that this land was not only the 
home of the free but of the free alone. 

It marched with Sherman to the sea, and bound 
Farragut closer to the mast at the battle of Mo- 
bile Bay than the ropes that lashed him there. 

It filled the hearts of others with a zeal and 
loyalty for their own State flags that, whether mis- 
taken or not, was still akin to that which filled our 
own, and alike gave strength and glory to Sheri- 
dan and Stonewall Jackson, to Grant and Robert 
Lee, and rendered them invincible excepting 
to each other. 

Is it any wonder that we know what that some- 
thing is in the air that the Cubans breathe? 

But while it is an element peculiar to the air 
of this western hemisphere, our land is not the 
only one where something in the air has filled it 
with hate of tyrants and with love of freedom. 

England recognized it after her experiences of 
5 



1776 to 1783, and by giving it full swing has been 
able to retain her great colonial possessions of 
Canada, the Northwest, Bermuda, and Jamaica, 
who in full western freedom and strength are ever 
loyal and true to their parent land. 

Spain, on the other hand, has always refused, as 
she always will, to recognize it, until colony 
by colony, she has lost all those great pos- 
sessions of North America, Mexico, Central and 
South America, that once extended from our 
Southern States to La Plata — all except Cuba and 
Porto Rico — and those she is as sure to lose in the 
near future as it is sure that the others have already 
been lost, and from the same cause also. 

That same "sometiiing" in the air the Cubans 
breathe, was felt by Mexico in 181 1, and sus- 
tained her in a struggle that lasted for eleven 
years, and finally resulted in her freedom. 

It filled the hearts of Bolivar and his men, and 
Venezuela was, and ever since has been, self- 
governed. 

Belgrano on the plains of La Plata felt its in- 
fluence when he drove from his country the cursed 
Morello, apt imitator of Alva and prototype of 
Weyler, and then the Argentine Republic sprang 
into existence with a strength and vigor that has 
excited the wonder and admiration of the world. 

The other provinces of South and Central Amer- 
ica were stirred up to demand their freedom, and 
finally the Emperor of Brazil was forced to abdi- 
cate his throne, and the great Brazilian Republic 
now includes an area almost as great as the United 
States. 

Not on the continent alone has its influence been 
felt, but it was strong enough to cross to Hayti 
and San Domingo, who also broke their chains of 
slavery. 



And so to-day, from the North Pole to Pata- 
gonia, freedom and liberty control the whole 
hemisphere, excepting Cuba and Porto Rico. 

And why to Cuba only should this great boon 
be denied ? Why should she alone be singled out 
as the one territory from which Eastern despotism 
and control cannot be rooted out? 

It seems as though that fated island had been 
reserved as a sort of monarchical park in the west- 
ern hemisphere, in which all the ancient relics of 
tributary servitude should be forever preserved, 
in order that the whole world may know what 
great improvement has been made in the march 
of civilization toward perfect government, by 
comparing the happy lot of the Western World 
with the present condition of Cuba — something 
similar to our National Yellowstone and Yosemite 
Parks, but in which, instead of relics of barbarity, 
we preserve from the destruction necessarily in- 
cident to increasing population nature's greatest 
wonders, in order that all the world for all time 
may know how grand our country has ever 
been. 

And has America never taken part in an}^ of 
these struggles outside the limits of her own ter- 
ritory ? Yes, at times — but seldom. 

In 1818, while the Spanish-American provinces 
were battling for liberty, that same element in the 
air they breathed stirred our hearts also to some 
extent, and most of all it touched the soul of the 
great Kentuckian, Henry Clay, who, in the noblest 
flight of oratory that ever burst from his heart, 
urged the House of Representatives to then recog- 
nize those struggling sister states as free and inde- 
pendent. But it was not until several years after- 
ward and not until the peace of Paris, in which all 
the other European nations joined, and Spain was 

7 



forced to grant her provinces the freedom they 
themselves had won, that we finally recognized 
them. And Carl Schurz tells us, in his "Life of 
Henry Clay," that his great sympathy for those 
States while they fought for the same liberty that 
we had achieved through the aid of allies stronger 
than ourselves when we were weak, cost him the 
presidency of this country, for the people feared 
that, in his zeal for them, he might involve us in 
a war with — Spain ! 

In 1818, when the same question was agitating 
this country in regard to those provinces that is 
now being discussed in regard to Cuba, their 
united population was less than twenty millions, 
while now it exceeds fifty millions ; their total 
commerce with this country, Brazil included, was 
small indeed compared to the two hundred mill- 
ions of to-day. 

And yet we still tell Cuba Libre that we cannot 
recognize her; that we must stand by and see the 
yoke of servitude bound on our brother's neck, 
although in our hearts we know that island should 
be free. And why does the United States refuse 
to recognize that freedom ? Why does it even 
hesitate? Every President has declared that it 
should be done and that it would be done. 

Cuba will be free- She must be free- 
Her independence must be acknowl- 
edged, acknowledged speedily, and 
should be first of all by these United 
States. 

Why not Cuba free, as well as Venezuela, Peru, 
or Ecuador? Why is her case any different from 
that of Chili or Brazil ? 

8 



Read the arguments against the freedom of the 
Spanish- American provinces in 1818, and they vary 
incidentally only, and not in general, from the 
arguments advanced against the freedom of 
Cuba. 

The same scenes were enacted, the same condi- 
tions existed then, as to the nature of the popu- 
lation, lawlessness, cheapness of life, and disre- 
gard of property, that exist to-day in Cuba, and 
would still be enacted and exist in those prov- 
inces to-day had Spain continued in possession, 
with power to harass and to destroy. 

And yet to-day each one of those provinces is a 
self-governed republic with whom we maintain 
friendly, cordial, and profitable relations both dip- 
lomatic and commercial. 

The termination of Spanish rule wrought the 
change in those countries, resulting in opening 
their ports to the commerce of the world ; in invit- 
ing to their shores a better and stronger class of 
emigrants ; and stopping the extortion, such as is 
practised to-day in Cuba, permitted the revenues 
from taxation to be expended in self-improve- 
ment instead of for a government thousands of 
miles away, that cared for its colonies only for 
the treasure that could be wrung from them for 
the support of a tottering monarchy or an un- 
stable so-called republic. 

With her population thrice decimated by pesti- 
lence, by famine and by war, and with all her 
energies paralyzed by the clutch of the terrible 
iron hand of Spain, which once in its might was 
so strong to grasp and to wield, but now is only 
able by its weight to crush and oppress, Cuba, 
wear)^ and dejected, sits amidst the ashes of 
her fair plantations once yielding their sweet- 
ness to the entire world, but now devastated by 

9 



fire and the sword. But will any one — can any 
one — deny that when once that iron hand shall 
have been removed that with lungs expanding 
with liberty achieved and with the strength ac- 
quired in her seventy years' struggle for freedom, 
Cuba will rise again in her grandeur, and once 
more become the Ever Faithful Isle, this time 
faithful not to any Eastern monarch, but to the 
principles of the freedom for which she has strug- 
gled, and which will ever bear her upward and 
onward toward the goal of national perfection, 
which can onl}^ be reached by a steadfast purpose 
and consistent action which are impossible except 
imdera just system of self-government, controlled 
only by self-respect. 

And in this upward course, aided by her nat- 
ural advantages of location and fertility, she may 
yet outstrip her older sisters, who, though they 
married, as it were, and left the parental home 
long ago, found no such glorious portion as that 
which, after all her tears and miseries are ended, 
may yet await this Cinderella of the Spanish 
household! 

Cuba's liberty is sure. Her sons and daughters 
have felt that " something " in the air, and, as we 
know so well, when once it has been felt no power 
on earth can overcome it, and all the forces of 
heaven will aid it, even as the stars in their courses 
fought for the victor}' of Deborah over Siscra, the 
oppressor of Israel. 

But — is that "something" still in the air we 
breathe ? Arc we still thrilled by the same emo- 
tions that once stirred our hearts when we heard 
of humanity struggling for that freedom of which 
we are so proud ? Has a hundred )-ears of pros- 
perity so diluted that element in the air, or has it 
so weakened our own perceptions, that our lungs 

lO 



no longer expand as broadly as before ? Has the 
" something " in the air that once could not fail to 
be felt in every heart and at every time " petered 
out," as they say of mines which, after making 
their owners millionaires, have suddenly and for- 
ever ceased to pay expenses ? Or is it that what 
we once so proudly called patriotism and love of 
fellow-man was after all nothing but merely ideal- 
ized selfishness? 

Is no helping hand to be stretched across the 
sea ? Have the same elements which in the crisis 
of thirty years ago produced a Lincoln for our- 
selves no power at this time to create a Lafayette 
for Cuba? Have we forgotten that it was the 
true George Washington whose heart was always 
stirred within him when he heard of any other 
nation's struggles for the liberty that we achieved 
for ourselves. Have we never considered as applic- 
able to ourselves the words of the Grand Old Man 
who for so many years controlled the destiny of our 
friendly ally across the seas when he warned his 
people in his letter on Armenia that they must 
shake off the incubus known as the Control of 
Europe and remember that now, as in the days of 
old, England has an existence, a character and a 
duty of her own. 

Why do we hesitate? Are we afraid ; and if 
so, afraid of what ? Can it be that we are afraid 
of war ; and if so, with whom ? 

With a power that, after keeping one of her 
provinces within a hundred miles of our shore 
under martial law the most oppressive that the 
world has ever seen, in an absolutely unavailing 
effort to suppress her avowed longing for free- 
dom, now threatens us with war, as it has ever 
done throughout this and other similar struggles 
for liberty on the part of her provinces, if for- 

II 



sooth we extend to suffering humanity within 
reach even a friendly grasp of the hand ; — 

With a power that has violated every provision 
of the existing treaty between it and ourselves, by 
not only murdering our citizens, but also by burn- 
ing their plantations, confiscating their property, 
and imprisoning them on suspicion, without the 
formalities of trial, expressly provided ; — 

With a power that, not satisfied with massacring 
the captain and fifty-two of the passengers of the 
Virginius, flying our flag, also desired the death 
of her entire complement and only desisted under 
threats of bombardment, not from ourselves, but 
from a commander of a friendly ally who assumed 
to represent the interest of all humanity and civ- 
ilization ; — 

With a power that, while the whole world stood 
aghast at the enormity of that crime against the 
law of nations, of nature, and of God (unparalleled 
except once, and that within a month), and which 
it itself afterward in solemn convention admitted 
to be wholly indefensible, permitted under its 
official sanction a bull-fight to be tendered to the 
brutal Burriel, who acted as Butcher-in-chief at 
that carnival of slaughter, as a token of apprecia- 
tion for his share in the perpetration of an act 
which the whole world condemned while Havana 
and Madrid applauded ; — 

With a power that for the last thirty years not- 
withstanding that peace existed, has in direct 
violations of treaty rights captured and searched 
vessels sailing under our flag on the high seas in 
the same manner that England did in the early 
part of this century and forced us into the War of 
1812, and who in committing these unlawful acts 
has accompanittl them with such lawlessness and 
cruelty that Secretary E\'arts stated in a despatch 

1 



to Minister Lowell, that the accounts given there- 
of in the press, had so far from being exaggerated 
been absolutely minimized; — 

With a power which in utter disregard of the 
rights of American citizenship, which we have 
been led to believe are sacred the whole wide 
world around, has bid defiance to us at every 
opportunity, and has practically warned our citi- 
zens from the city in their province, which is 
nearest to our own land, and with which neces- 
sarily we are closely bound commercially ; and in 
this respect has made it possible to say that the 
life of an American citizen is safe in any part of 
the world except where flies the flag of Spain ; — 

With a power that has discriminated against our 
commerce, steadily and effectually, imposing fines 
upon, and even confiscating our merchant-vessels 
and their cargoes, as evidenced by the cases 
of the Masonic, Ocean Pearl, and others too nu- 
merous to mention, until our merchants prefer 
to trade with ports of any country in the world 
save those of Spain ; — 

With a power under whose government have 
been perpetrated not only the outrages upon 
Michaelson, Delgado, the crew of the Competitor, 
and Dr. Ruiz, whose misfortunes we are familiar 
with, but on hundreds of American citizens, the 
records of whose wrongs can only be found in 
the archives of our State Department; — 

With a power against whom we have to-day 
claims pending for treaty violations by nearly two 
hundred of our citizens and aggregating nearly 
twenty million dollars ; and which bankrupt at 
home and creditless abroad is now seeking by 
pledging the very palace in which it lives to ob- 
tain money wherewith it may retain the Island 
which four hundred years ago Columbus discov- 

13 



ered by means of the money raised by Isabella's 
pawning the jewels ; — 

With a power that in the last few days has shown 
that all its crimes heretofore committed are but 
venial when compared with the crime of horror for 
which it is responsible, for undoubtedly to that 
power is due directly or indirectly the destruction 
of the Maine in Havana harbor ; a crime against 
man, against the law of nations and of nature, so 
deep, so foul, that no pen of man can ever, or 
should ever, attempt to describe it. The genius 
that could describe it fully does not exist, thank 
God, for if it did it would drive men mad; — 

With a power that not only has^ defied and 
treated other nations as it has our own, but which 
has treated its own subjects with cruelty and op- 
pression and makes it an act of war against her- 
self on the part of any nation even to extend their 
sympathy. 

Why do we hesitate? 

To-day — for these thoughts have crystallized 
themselves into words on a calm Sabbath day — ten, 
yes, a hundred — thousand ministers of the Gospel 
in this Christian land are lifting up their voices 
in prayer that this country may be spared the 
horrors of a war and enjoy the blessings of peace ; 
and as those fervent prayers have risen from the 
pulpit millions of heartfelt amens echoed from 
the pews beneath, have borne them on their up- 
ward way, and laid them at the feet of the Ruler 
of the l/niverse — He who alone can judge the 
nations with equity and tlie people with His truth. 
God grant a favorable answer to those prayers — 
but how can we tell — who knows but that in His 
almighty and far-seeing judgment He intends 
through these means to bind our federated nation 
closer together than any nation ever yet was 
bound, and so there mav 3'et be war — but if so, 
it will be a war that waged, as it will be, only 

14 



for the sake of justice and right of man and pun- 
ishment of crime, will and can but bring with it 
victory, and victory crowned with honor in the 
eyes of all our fellow-men, to be followed by peace 
which will be indeed peaceful, and not merely as 
it has been for years and is now when men cry 
" Peace, peace, but there is no peace." 

And so let our ministers of Christ — brave army 
always in battle array in the great war that never 
ceases against mankind — remember as the}'^ pray, 
that it may be only by the blessings of war that 
we can overcome the horrors of peace. 

Let them remember as they pray that rights of 
citizenship and of mankind are sacred and must 
be protected, even though sacrifice of life and hap- 
piness be for a time involved. 

Let them remember as they pray that in the 
Gospel which they preach there is not one word, 
from the beginning to the end, in condemnation of 
a war of justice. 

Let them remember as they pray that the Prince 
of Peace is likewise the God of Battles. 

Let them remember as they pray that the dis- 
ciple loved above all others, and who on the 
last eventful night rested his head on that bosom 
so full of untold love for man, saw his dear Lord 
come again when the heavens opened and the 
Faithful and the True, on the great white horse 
of the Apocalypse, rode with vestures dipped in 
blood and drawn sword in hand, followed by all 
the mounted hosts of heaven, judging and waging 
war in righteousness, and treading out the wine- 
press of the wrath of God. 

And, as they pray, let them follow the example 
of one of New York's ablest and most eminent di- 
vines, who, on a recent Sabbath during this im- 
pending crisis, at a service enriched by the dedica- 
tion of a noble organ, fit instrument to accompany 
alike the song of thankfulness for peace at home, or 
battle-songs of soldiers of God and nations as they 
inarch to victory, prayed that through the help 
of the Almighty this country might be preserved 
in peace— Yea, O Lord, preserved in peace, if 

fHOU WILT — BUT ABOVE ALL— IN HONOR. 

^■1 



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